Week-end Wrap – Political Economy – June 8, 2025
by Tony Wikrent
Trump not violating any law
‘He who saves his Country does not violate any Law’
Joe DePaolo, May 4th, 2025 [mediaite.com]
National Guard to be sent to L.A. amid clashes; Newsom calls Hegseth’s threat of Marines ‘deranged’
[Los Angeles Times, June 7, 2025]
ZACK STANTON, 06/08/2025 [politico.com/playbook]
Trump: “If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can’t do their jobs, which everyone knows they can’t, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!”
….
What Trump is doing is incredibly rare: “It is the first time since 1965 that a president has activated a state’s National Guard force without a request from that state’s governor,” NYT’s Shawn Hubler and Laurel Rosenhall report, citing Elizabeth Goitein of the Brennan Center. “The last time was when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to Alabama to protect civil rights demonstrators in 1965, she said.”
Also worth flagging: The National Guard “has nearly non-existent law enforcement training or doctrine despite it always being talked about as a domestic force,” as Military.com’s Steve Beynon notes.
What’s the basis of the legal authority here? The Times notes that “the directive signed by Mr. Trump cites ‘10 U.S.C. 12406,’ referring to a specific provision within Title 10 of the U.S. Code on Armed Services. Part of that provision allows the federal deployment of National Guard forces if ‘there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.’” Naturally, then, language from the administration aims to underscore the threat of rebellion, danger or invasion.
The Trump Family’s Money-Making Machine
[Bloomberg, via The Big Picture June 1, 2025]
…no modern American president has positioned his family to make so much money while in the White House. Already, since the early days of his reelection campaign, he’s more than doubled his net worth to about $5.4 billion.
In that time, the Trump name has powered more than $10 billion of real estate projects, a multibillion-dollar valuation for his money-losing social-media company, more than $500 million in sales from just one of his crypto ventures and millions of dollars more from stakes in companies that offer financial services, guns and drone parts. Family members have also scored an array of corporate positions — at least seven new roles as an adviser or executive for his oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., alone.
[Military Religious Freedom Foundation, via DailyKos 06-05-2025]
Trump Makes NPR’s Legal Case Extra Easy By Admitting Retaliatory Motives In Executive Order Title
[techdirt, via Naked Capitalism 06-01-2025]
‘This Is What Fascism Looks Like’: Beloved Labor Leader David Huerta Arrested
Jon Queally, June 07, 2025 [CommonDreams]
Unions and allies in California and across the United States on Saturday are demanding the immediate release of David Huerta, president of SEIU California and SEIU-United Service Workers West, after the highly regarded labor leader was injured and then arrested while witnessing a raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Friday.
Judge Uses 26 Exclamation Points to Strike Down Trump’s Terrible Order
Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling, May 28, 2025 [The New Republic]
U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia Richard Leon struck down Donald Trump’s executive order targeting law firm WilmerHale Tuesday, describing the entire directive as “unconstitutional.” In a 73-page opinion, Leon took the time to explain the principles of democracy to the president, illustrating how his political retribution campaign is quintessentially antithetical to the foundational principles of the U.S. government.
The Real Reason Trump Has Created This Autopen Scandal
Matt Ford, June 6, 2025 [The New Republic]
The latest in manufactured controversies has less to do with legal victories over the Biden administration than it does with creating content for the president’s media allies.
Men DOGEbags at Work
Elon Musk’s Government Legacy Was Enacting Project 2025. His Ties Go Back Years
Joe Fassler [DeSmogBlog, via Naked Capitalism 06-02-2025]
A DeSmog analysis found that DOGE’s explosive tactics under Musk represented the culmination of a years-long strategy to remake American governance, one developed by a small, influential network of conservative and far-right groups whose influence on Trump may tilt the U.S. toward autocracy. While ranging in focus, these groups generally mix an authoritarian brand of Christian Nationalist politics with free-market libertarianism — an ideology that tends to favor restrictive laws for citizens and leniency for corporations. Many also cast doubt on the dangers of climate change and work to undermine the federal government’s ability to respond to rapid warming. And Musk — contrary to his reputation as an ungovernable outsider with his own big ideas — was carrying out their vision to a T.
But it was more than that: Musk’s arrival on the scene helped to launder the reputation of an enormously unpopular playbook, putting techno-utopian lipstick on the Project 2025 pig. By September 2024, Project 2025 was p...